


Graduation

by pajamaprodigy



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: F/F, F/M, Mention of Death, PMMM AU: no contracts, Puella Magi Madoka Magica AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-12
Updated: 2013-08-12
Packaged: 2017-12-23 05:29:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/922561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pajamaprodigy/pseuds/pajamaprodigy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Growing up is scary and magical, even without contracts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Graduation

Homura Akemi had promised you that you could do her hair. She had promised you on Monday, and now it was Wednesday, the day of Hitomi's party, and you were putting up garlands in her front room when you should have been in the bathroom, doing Homura's hair. Sayaka was standing on a chair, pinning the chain of paper flowers to the wall, and you were passing it up to her. Hitomi was furiously scrubbing the spotless ledge of the window beside you.   
"Just think!" Sayaka exclaimed, stretching. "Three years ago, we were so excited to start junior high, and now, we're so excited to leave it."  
"I think I'm more scared than excited," Hitomi admitted.  
You are too.  
"We're going to have to figure out a whole new school, and they'll give us lots more homework."  
But for different reasons.  
"Yeah, but we're going to get to go to high school! High school!"  
You laughed. "You said the same thing about middle school too!"  
"But we'll be even closer to being grown ups. We aren't babies anymore at all. We can do so much."  
You have reached the end of the garland, and Sayaka has fastened it.   
"Anything else we can do to help, Hitomi-chan?" Sayaka asked.  
"Hmm, maybe put put the balloons? Madoka-chan should do that; she's the only one who's dressed already."  
It was true. You had worn your fancy dress under your graduation gown and put your hair back into its pigtails the minute Tatsuya had taken your cap. You had wanted to be ready when you saw Homura.   
You didn't. Instead, your grandparents took you, and your parents, and your brother, and Sayaka out to ice-cream and told you how proud they were of you. You had laughed and eaten ice cream with your friend and your family.  
But it wasn't what you wanted.  
"Ok," you said to Hitomi.  
"The balloons are by the front door. If Homura or the caterers show, let them in."  
You got the balloons and brought them outside. Homura had to come soon. She had promised. You were going to see Homura.  
You tied the balloons to the side of the porch and the railing on Hitomi's steps. Then, you sat down and looked for her.  
"Hey!"   
You looked up to see Sayaka leaning out of a window.  
"Hey!" You called back to her.  
That was when Homura walked up the front steps. She was so quiet that you didn't notice that she was there until she stopped, her shadow barely touching your feet.  
"Hello, Madoka." Her face was joy and nervousness and radiant hope.  
"Hi, Homura-chan!" You replied.  
You looked at her for a few moments. She looked right back at you, smiling brilliantly.  
"Come on inside. I was going to do your hair, remember?"  
"Yes." She bounded up the steps; you followed.

Homura's hair was beautiful and thick and long, and it was hers. Your hands were in her hair. You undid her braids, and then you combed it, and then you braided it again, but only part of it, and then you gathered that part into a bun, and the rest flowed out beneath it. Then she gave you a hug. She hugged you and thanked you, and you told her she was beautiful, and she looked like she was about to cry. You felt more like falling over than crying. You feel a little bit dizzy. You hugged her and told her that she was beautiful. Maybe she understood...maybe...

The catering service arrived some time ago, and now Sayaka and Hitomi were opening the door to more and more of your classmates. You and Homura went down the stairs, just in time to see Hitomi kiss her boyfriend. Thankfully, Sayaka didn't make a big show of turning away; she had forgiven Hitomi and Kyosuke long ago. "After all," she had said, "she can play for him, and I can't." 

Music was playing from a speaker under the front table, and exhillarated teens, finally done with junior high, filled Hitomi's living room, some talking excitedly, some eating from the trays of food, and some just standing around the periphery. You and Homura still stood at the bottom of the stairs. You smiled back up at her. "Let's go join in the fun, Homura-chan."

You and Homura walked around for the next hour, occasionally joining other people's conversations. They all felt the same: glad that junior high was over and nervous about high school. You couldn't talk to either Hitomi or Sayaka though. Hitomi and Kyosuke were too enchanted by each other's company to take notice of anyone around them, and Sayaka was having some sort of very intense conversation with a red haired girl from the catering service. 

Eventually, you and Homura just went back to the stairs and sat at the bottom. You were with her and no one else. Now, now was when you should tell her how much you loved her. Now was when you should be brave like Hitomi was last year.

"How are you?" You asked her.   
"Really really happy." She leaned towards you.   
"Nervous?"  
"No," she answered. "Not at all."  
"Ok," you laughed. You were nervous. Nervous that you had missed something terribly important.  
"The thing is, I'm not scared anymore," she replied.  
"Oh?"  
"I used to be scared of being alone, of having to live without anyone caring about me or knowing me, but I know that won't happen."  
"It won't," you answered her. It won't.  
"I am so glad I met you and Sayaka and Hitomi and you."  
You tried and failed not over think her having said your name twice.  
"I'm also really glad that we're all still friends, and still, you know, here."  
You get the shivers whenever you remember that Homura had been so ill.  
"I mean, when I started at Mitakihara, I worried a lot about being lonely, and then I thought something would happen to you, like to Kamijo-kun or to that girl."  
You nodded. You had been horrified too when you, as a first year, had heard that a girl in the next year up had died in that car accident, and then when the same thing almost happened to Kyosuke, Sayaka kept talking about how unfair it was that she couldn't help him, even in front of Homura, who didn't know any of these people. Of course she would think that terrible things happened all of the time, that she would have to get used to saying goodbye and being alone. "But we're fine."  
"We are," said Homura. "That's why I'm not afraid now. We're fine."  
But terrible things can happen to us later. We can grow up and be miserable. "So you aren't worried at all?"  
"No, I feel like we did something really big and we did just fine."  
You smiled up at her. Her confidence was so comforting, mostly because you knew her to be so cautious.  
"We did just," she trailed off.  
Your eyes had locked on hers and you were not really sure of anything else.   
"Fine."  
You were terribly nervous. Her confidence was comforting, but at the same time, you feared that it meant that she wasn't feeling like you. Nobody could feel like you and say they were calm. "Homura-chan..."  
"I'm so glad I met you, Madoka."  
"Me too, Homura-chan." It was all you could say. You loved her. You loved her. You loved her more than you could believe. You loved her more than enough to die for her, and enough to be infinitely grateful that you had the chance to live for her. You loved her.   
"Madoka..." She began. She stopped.  
"I really really like you."  
It surprised you that you had the courage to say it so overtly. You loved her, and you told her, and you were terribly, terribly brave, maybe the bravest you would ever be.  
"Oh," she replied. She kept looking at you. "You do?" Her face lit up, and you knew. You understood in the best way.   
"Yes." You exhaled and realized that you had been holding your breath. "Do you...?"  
"If love is when someone means the world to you, then, well-" she stopped and looked away.  
You felt so happy. "Homura-chan!" You took her hands in yours.  
She squeezed back wordlessly. Homura was the only other person in the whole world and the world was beautiful.   
The funny thing is, you didn't wish that this would last forever. You knew that you and Homura would have a future, one where you could enjoy your summer together, start high school, and forge a path into some vague adult life together. This wasn't the end; this was no last embrace. Her hands in yours, her smile before you, her warmth: this would remain.


End file.
